2017 Virginia Legislation Wrap Up – Gun Bills

We started the year by attending Lobby Day to attending each pro and anti gun bills in the GA sessions to writing emails and calling ours legislators about the bills we support or opposed. We are almost at the end of the road for the 2017 legislation. Good news is all anti-gun bills were buried this year and several good gun bills got sign in to law by our governor who is a man of his party’s agenda. He did vetoed couple of good life saving gun bills such as, HB 1582, Campbell, military 18 and older can apply for a CHP and SB 1299 by Vogel, protective orders become CHPs. Ironically the Democrats talk so much about protecting women and children but only if it politically concerns their interest. We tried to override several good bills that were vetoed but failed yesterday.
I was watching the feeds yesterday from Philip Van Cleave, the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League who was at the General Assembly watching the whole showdown.
Snippets taken from Philip’s Facrbook posting.

The most important bill to me and many others who travel to anti gun states is SB 1023 sharing concealed permit information to states that don’t honor Virginian’s concealed handgun permit. People’s Socialist Republic of Maryland is known to harass law abiding citizens instead of going after real law breakers. This is the most recent well known case Florida Man with Gun at Home Gets Pulled Over, Searched, ‘Humiliated’ in Maryland. No wonder why MD’s crime per capital is way above Virginia. This matter also steps in to the privacy realm, which is why we were encouraged to write to those especially democrat legislators.Below taken from the VCDL Alert:

The veto session concluded late last night. Two pro-rights bills survived and are now headed back to the Governor’s desk for a final action.

The bill we have fought for the hardest at the end of the session is one of the two that has survived so far – SB 1023.

Here are the gun bills and their status:

BILLS HEADED BACK TO GOVERNOR’S DESK

SB 1023, Stuart, prevents the Virginia State Police from sharing CHP info with states that don’t honor our CHPs. Lt. Gov. Northam ruled that the Governor’s change to convert the bill into a One Handgun a Month bill was constitutional. The Senate disagreed and took a vote, which overrode the Lt. Governorl by a margin of 21-19, ruling the Governor’s substitute bill as unconstitutional.

SB 1315, Carrico, foster parents can carry at home. The Governor’s amendment which destroyed the bill was rejected with a bi-partisan vote – 24-16

HB 1392, Lingamfelter, authorizes retired police officers who are working security at a K-12 school to carry a firearm

BILLS THAT ARE NOW DEAD (To override a veto, there needs to be 67 votes in the House and 27 in the Senate. Some fell short by only one or two votes.)

HB 1432, Ware, switchblades legalized: no vote attempted

HB 1582, Campbell, military 18 and older can apply for a CHP: 66-32

HB 1852, Gilbert, protective orders become CHPs: 65-34 (Gilbert fought hard for his bill on the House Floor. Gilbert called out the blatant hypocrisy of those who were voting against this bill, but who were wearing ribbons in solidarity with crime victims.)

HB 1853, Gilbert, free training for domestic violence victims: 65-34 (Gilbert fought hard for his bill on the House Floor)

SB 865, Stuart, allows family members to transfer various knives to minor family members: 21-19

The other good news of today is Georgia’s new law recognizes Virginia’s handgun permit. Georgia, New Law Recognizes Virginia Concealed Handgun PermitsNote: DO NOT CARRY outside your vehicle in Georgia until the Georgia Attorney General shows Virginia permits as being honored on his website.
For those of you with Florida and Utah permit there is no news for you here.